Barry Phillips has been musician. arranger and producer of many recordings of Celtic and American folk music on the Gourd label including Simple Gifts, Tree of Life and Music On The Mountain (instrumental arrangements of melodies of the American Shakers), Wondrous Love (instrumental versions of "Shape Note" tunes), and The World Turned Upside Down (Colonial American folk and classical) and his first solo release (2000) Cello. These recordings often explore the sometimes very fine line between "folk" and "classical" music.
Barry received a Masters of Music degree in composition from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 1990. Since graduating, besides recording on his own, Barry has concertized and recorded with fiddler Alasdair Fraser, guitarist Martin Simpson, harpist Aine Minogue. sitarist Anoushka Shankar and the legendary British rock group Camel.
Since 1996 Barry has been a student of Ravi Shankar and has assisted Mr. Shankar in the composing of a cello sonata and a quartet for sitar, cello, harp and tabla for Mstislav Rostropovich. In 2002 he assisted in the composition of Ravi Shankar’s Arpan for the Concert for George (George Harrison celebration) at the Albert Hall, playing cello in the Ravi Shankar Orchestra and also in the string section that played along with Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr and others.
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